Cash must be part of abuse compo: inquiry

Date: December 17 2012

Genevieve Gannon

Victims of institutional abuse must be financially compensated as part of a broader acknowledgment of wrongdoing, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

A partner at a law firm that has handled more than one thousand child sex abuse claims said victims' desire for justice outweighs their desire for financial compensation but money is vital because victims' experiences "cost them a great deal".

"The money is important because the money is a tangible acknowledgment of wrongdoing," Angela Sdrinis of Ryan Carlisle Thomas Lawyers told the Victorian child abuse inquiry on Monday.

"For victims to feel some sense of justice, what they get has to cost a wrongdoer."

Ms Sdrinis says there needs to be an apology, and payment should be part of that as a gesture that the institution recognises the victim has suffered at its hands.

The theme of financial compensation ran through three submissions heard on Monday by Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into religious and non-government organisations' handling of sex abuse against children.

In its address to the inquiry, the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) called for compensation to be paid through a fund similar to the James Hardie asbestos injuries compensation fund.

Religious organisations would be required to contribute to it, LIV said.

LIV president Michael Holcroft said this would remove some of the uncertainty victims' faced when making a compensation claim.

He said anyone attempting to bring an action against the Catholic Church risked the church relying on the defence it did not employ the members of the clergy.

"They do not have assets, the assets are held in independent property trusts," Mr Holcroft said.

"Hence any compensation arrangements or settlement arrangements will be prejudiced in light of that."

Advocacy group Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) said an independent panel should supervise a redress scheme.

"Redress payments should be funded by economic contributions by the state and the churches and the charities that run all children's homes, foster care and other institutions," CLAN told the inquiry.

The inquiry heard there was evidence of abuse allegations going back 80 years.

CLAN chief executive Leonie Sheedy said many of CLANs members had a real fear of going into a nursing home.

"A lot of our members tell us they will commit suicide rather than go back into an institution again," Ms Sheedy said.

CLAN's submission and statement to the inquiry detailed a number of shocking abuse cases, some of which were heard in a 2004 Senate inquiry into children in institutional care.

CLAN said children who attempted to report institutional abuse were threatened, isolated, beaten and blamed, including being frequently locked in cupboards by their carers as punishment for raising allegations.

One girl, who reported abuse to nuns, was kicked by them and then told she was "the spawn of the devil", the organisation said.

CLAN said thousands of children who attempted to escape their abusers and some who made reports of sexual mistreatment were returned to the perpetrators, with police returning children who had run away to the religious and government homes.

The advocacy group strongly suggests these children were fleeing "rape and sexual or other forms of abuse".

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